Sleepless in South Sudan

Map of South Sudan

 

This podcast is by a science writer Carl Zimmer who finds himself in South Sudan, staring up at holes in his mosquito net contemplating Malaria. At the beginning of the podcast he talks about some of the illnesses that are found in South Sudan. He talks about the Tse Tse fly which causes a deadly illness called sleeping sickness. He also talks about two types of illnesses that are associated with water.

a)      State whether these are water-borne, water-based or water-bred.
The Bilharzia disease and the Guinea worm larvae illness are both water-borne illnesses.

b)      Describe the way that the illness is related to water
These illnesses are related to water, this is because they are water-borne illnesses, meaning that the carriers live in water.

c)       Draw a cartoon showing how ONE of these is transmitted from water to humans and back to water again. You can refer to your text books or to any text based description on the internet. You cannot copy diagrams from any source, but must design your own.

Malaria

Flooding

Summary on Flooding Video
Why is this year’s flood more severe than those in the past years? All the water comes from rainwater, which occurs normally every year. Thailand is geographically sloped; therefore the rainwater from the north will naturally flow southwards to the Gulf of Thailand. In the past, the flow of water moving southward would be absorbed and delayed by forests, which were Thailand’s natural dams and water gates. However, as time pass by, technology rises, and men use it to control the flow of water themselves. In order to do this, dams were built to hold and release water whenever they like. Moreover, forests are soon replaced with residential and other industrial developments in order to cope with the increasing population; the control of water was taken over from Mother Nature’s hands to men, where a loss of control could occur. The rainfall this year is more than usual, due to the heavy and frequent rainfalls in September, having a total of approximately 100 billion cubic meters of water on land. The flood has been disrupting people’s lives, therefore the main aim is let the flood flow to the Gulf of Thailand as soon as possible. Although one solution could be to let the flood flow through Bangkok, the government’s policy is to protect the water levees, hoping that the water will stop flowing to inner Bangkok. One problem is water pressure. One theory is that the flood flowing to Bangkok will accumulate, and eventually the levees will not be able to hold the pressure anymore, which will let the water flow through. Many people wonder can the levees actually hold? When will they collapse? Though it is still unclear, but Bangkokians are still under risk being flood victims. The best solution for all of us to do is to stay calm and focus on how to prepare ourselves for the situation so we do not get affected badly.

8.4 Causes and effects of flooding and drought

Weather patterns determine the amount and location of rainfall. However, the amount and the time of rainfall are not constant for any given area. Overall, the water cycle is a balanced system. Water from rivers and lakes which are all originated from the source in the mountains, all flow towards the seas to balance the system. But sometimes there is a chance when the amount of rainfall exceeds the capacity of rainfall an area can withhold. This results a flood. Moreover, human technology can contribute to this problem too, for as stated in the video, vast forests who can absorb and delay the flow of water, are replaced with residential areas and other industrial developments which creates an impermeable surface, which does not let the water pass through into the ground, therefore it stays on land.

Reflection on Nick Kimpton's Farm

Dear Dairy,

Today's lesson has taught me about Nick's farm in New Zealand:
Nick's farm is used to produce dairy products, beef and wine. This farm is no longer subsidized by the government as the farm has to be independent in the free market. The demand for dairy products have risen over the years, mostly in Asia, for they are more aware of consuming more protein. It takes around two years for a cow to grow and produce milk.In order for the milk to be produced, the cows need more energy, therefore they are treated better. The milk that is produced is pasteurized, they do this by heating the milk to kill the bacteria and immediately drop the temperature.
Moreover, Nick is environmentally friendly. he grows around 1,000 trees a year, and uses manure as fertilizer to make the land more fertile. He has approximately 200 cows, which are numbered and are fed 80% grass and 20% maize.The farm is produces mostly by machinery.

From his visit today, I realised that there are farmers out there that think as positive as Nick, who is environmentally friendly and can be successful in his business without using any shortcuts.

Formation of Cyclones

The Formation of a Cyclone:
Cyclones are formed when there is warm ocean waters to heat the air particles, and the moist air particles rise and gains energy leading to more particles rising (evaporation). As they go upwards, they leave an area of low pressure which sucks up even more air from the surface. The moist air particles get cooler and get denser, which is the process of condensation, and they form clouds. Latent heat energy is created from the processes between evaporation to condensation, which gives energy to the particles. The particles then result in moving at great speed and at the same time pulled in the area of low pressure, and due to the spinning of the earth, the clouds rotate. These air particles then rush towards the centre together, creating a vortex.

Past Paper Questions - Pollution Management

(i) State two reasons why atmospheric pollution from worse in places with a dry and hot climate.

Atmospheric pollution may be worse in places with a dry climate because for example rain, it can disperse the pollution in an area, however a dry climate will have little wind, which means there is less chance for the pollution to be blown away and be dispersed. Moreover, dry climate meaning less rain, will mean that the pollution will cluster together and stay at the same place. In the day, the air particles rise up, but in the night the temperature drops, causing the air particles in the valleys to be trapped, because it is heavy. This is called temperature inversion.

(ii) Where are strategies for reducing traffic emissions likely to be more effective - in developed world cities like los angeles or in developing world cities like Cairo and Beijing?

Strategies for reducing traffic emission is likely to be more effective in developed world cities such as Los Angeles, because they have more money than the developing countries to come up with technology and methods to reduce traffic emissions. Los Angeles can spend more money on public transport and also catalytic converters in cars. However, it would be easier to reduce traffic emissions in developing cities like Cairo because there are less people therefore the people living there can be easily controlled and influenced.

Revision Question

Sugar cane does not harm the environment by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, because sugar canes contain carbon but not carbon dioxide. However, even if carbon dioxide was let out, the plants in the farm will absorb the CO2 for photosynthesis.
Note: The sugar cane is the sync of carbon dioxide.

Biomes

Unit 14.6 Location of major climatic types and their main characteristics through interpretation of climatic graphs and maps


From the textbook:
Location of Biomes - Page 213
Tundra Biome - Page 214
Taiga (coniferous forests) - Page 215
Monsoon Forests - Page 217
Savanna Grasslands - Page 218
Hot Desert - Page 219


A website showing a table will statistics of each biome which is clearly displayed:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/


Gives an introduction of each biome and also provides a climate graph consisting of rainfall and temperature data every month:
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/biomes.html


A reliable site with statistics of each biome, temperature and precipitation graphs and the location on the map:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Experiments/Biome/


A site aimed for young people, therefore the context is written in its simplest terms so it is easy for the reader to understand. Graphs displayed too!
http://www.mbgnet.net/index.html


Biomes displayed in an order arranged by its humidity and temperature:
http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/biomes/page.html


Activities we did in class:- At the start of the subject, each table were assigned to a biome, and we were to research about them.
- We had quizzes about the biomes

Weather Report Write Up - 28/03/11 (1:51pm)

Clouds: Altostratus (Middle-level cloud, forming a large gray sheet) and Nimbostratus (Rain producing cloud), Overcast (90-100% cloud cover)

Contrail: 0-10% contrail cover, persistent non-spreading

Barometric Station Pressure: 1010 mbar at 1:51 pm

Relative Humidity: Dry bulb temp – 24 ^oc whilst wet bulb temp – 19.5^oc, meaning a relative humidity of around 62 to 69%.

Temperatures: Colder than usual, drizzling, overcast

                Current Air temperature: 24^oc

                Maximum Daily Air temperature: 23^oc

                Minimum Daily Air temperature: 25^oc

                Current soil temperature: 26.4^oc

Surface Temperature (using IRT but wrapping it in a thermal glove and then taken from storage location to study site to prevent thermal shock to the user):

Observation Spots	Local Time (hrs:mins)	Surface Temperature (oc)	Overall Average
1	1:55	29.2	27.2oc
2	1:56	25.8
3	2:00	25.2
4	2:00	26.2
5	2:01	24.8
6	2:02	27.2
7	2:03	27.2
8	2:04	31.4
9	2:04	27.6

Weather Report - 26/03/11

Yesterday was sunny, there were mild winds but no rainfall. As usual, the skies mostly consisted of cumulus clouds.

Air Temperature: 28.7°C
Precipitation: 0mm
Air Pressure: 1008.9 hPa
Humidity: 65%

Weather Report - 27/03/11

Once again, I could not differentiate the types of clouds were outside my balcony today, for the pollution in the air was denser than before. However, judging from the shadows, all I could see were stratus clouds. There were HUGE, and they covered most of the skies. Throughout the day, there were strong winds, the strongest yet as I'm writing now. There seems be no rainfall.

Air Temperature: 27.9°C
Precipitation: 0mm
Air Pressure: 1011.9 hPa
Humidity: 62%

Weather Report - 25/03/11

Today's skies were a bit grey today, I saw the nimbus clouds fuse with the cumulus clouds. There was also calm winds.

Air Temperature: 28.5°C
Precipitation: 0mm
Air Pressure: 1010.8 hPa
Humidity: 69%

Weather Report - 24/03/11

Today there were lots of stratus clouds, they stretched across the sky like a blanket. Also, there were a little bit of cirrus clouds and cumulus clouds. I could recognize them by their wispy feature and the clouds look like huge puffs of cotton! At first I couldn't recognize any of the clouds, because I live near the airport, therefore the air is dirty around here, so it was hard to see.

Air Temperature: 29.4°C
Precipitation: 0mm
Air Pressure: 1008.9 hPa
Humidity: 67%

About me and my interest towards in the environment

Hi, I am currently a student studying Environmental Management. I have great interest towards the environment, including the wildlife, nature, clouds and how amazing animals can be! The main reason why I chose Environmental Management, was because I wanted to help the Earth restore its beauty and by doing this, I need to find the causes to these problems, which is why I chose this subject. :)
If you are interested in how natural disasters occur, why the earth is becoming warmer, describing the rock cycle and more, Environmental Management is the subject for you!



















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